LABU AIRPORT AGAIN

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
1. A commentator MoMan who confesses to being a great admirer of mine and is involved in the Labu airport project has tried to explain why Labu airport is necessary.

2. However his reasons for wanting the airport at Labu is mainly because the KLIA is not efficient. Following are its shortcomings;

a. Because of the purchase of the wrong radar KLIA is handling only 35 aircrafts on its two runways when it should be handling 70. This causes delays morning, lunchtime and midnight

b. KLIA’s sophisticated conveyor belt is not functioning well because sorting the bags is being done by immigrants who cannot read Malay or English

c. Weak security. Airport operator not investing and managing its people well.

d. Airport operator of the Low Cost Carrier Terminal wastes money building extensions at ridiculously escalated price.

3. Other points raised to justify Labu are;

a. Air Asia needs a permanent home fast.

b. By 2013 Air Asia will need to carry 25 million passengers.

c. KLIA built on swampy land – costly to build.

d. London has five airports. New York has three airports. So has Rome, Paris, Tokyo, Melbourne and Nice.

e. Resuscitate Keretapi Tanah Melayu from the living dead. KTM can make RM62 million a year carrying passengers from and to Labu airport.

4. Now if I may give my opinion; a-d are about inefficiency of KLIA. You don’t solve inefficiency by building a new airport. I suspect immigrant labour would still be used at Labu.

5. Air Asia needs a permanent home fast. KLIA can provide that. Klia has 25,000 acres, bigger than Putrajaya. There should be enough space for the 25 million Air Asia passengers and more.

6. KLIA handles 25 million passengers now with two runways and 35 aircraft movements per hour.

7. Labu will have one runway and will need to handle 70 movements per hour in order to handle 25 million passengers. But according to you Gatwick with one runway and great efficiency (busiest runway in the world) handle only 40.6 movements per hour. Will Labu beat Gatwick and handle 70 movements per hour with one runway?

8. All those hubs have as many as five airports. But are they eight kilometres from each other? Heathrow is 40km from Gatwick, Stanstead, Croydon and Luton. All the airports are at least 40km from each other. Labu would be seven kilometres from KLIA. Even Subang is more than eight kilometres from KLIA.

9. It is the same with all the other airports serving the cities named.

10. KTM may not be making money but it is not dead yet if we go by the number of passengers using the commuter. KTM and the Express Rail Link (ERL) will have to invest a substantial sum to carry 6 million more passengers. They may not want to. In which case you will have to rely on road transport or subsidise their development. You have already said you will not do so.

11. Air Asia does not serve most of the long haul routes originating or terminating in KLIA. There will have to be double checking and double handling if Air Asia passengers want to use the KLIA for their travels to or from foreign countries. You need to have dedicated roads or trains between Labu and KLIA.

12. The biggest argument against Labu is its nearness to KLIA. With two control towers uncoordinated control over movements and stacking before landing, with 70 x 2 movements per hour, the possibility of crashes is very real.

13. The government appears to be in control of both Air Asia and KLIA. Why cannot there be negotiations over handling charges instead of spending RM1.6 billion on a new airport?

HANAN

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
(On Jan 24, 2009, Hanan commented on Boycott – this is my reply)

Dear Hanan,

1. I agree entirely with you that building a great nation doesn’t only take brains, but as you said it sure does help.

2. However brains alone without a heart (feelings) can produce a monster.

3. Israel is undoubtedly a great nation, becoming great through the brains and the numerous achievements you have listed. Yes I have used Israeli originated products like Microsoft Windows and Pentium chips (made in Malaysia) by Intel, an American company.

4. In fact I owe my life ultimately to Israel because there must be something invented by Israelis in the numerous instruments used in heart surgery. However most of the products used were invented and produced by Japanese.

5. I am amazed at the number of Nobel Laureates Israel has produced. I admit we have not produced even one.

6. But when the brain is without a heart it does not care for the misery resulting from the products of the brain.

7. The atom bombs which killed 100,000 men, women, children and babies are the product of Israeli (Jewish) brain. Most of the diabolical weapons now being used to kill millions of people are also the creation of Israelis on Zionist Jews. The depleted uranium and phosphorous shells being used in Gaza are also the product of Israeli brains.

8. The current financial crisis which is destroying the economies of the U.S. Britain and in fact all the countries of the world is due to manipulations of banks, financial institutions and the monetary system by Jewish supporters of Israel.

9. The negation of the freedom of speech when it comes to the alleged killings of Jews in World War II are also inspired by Zionist Jews.

10. But worse of all is the seizure of Palestinian land to create the state of Israel. Not content with the area given to the Jews by the United Nations you have seized more Palestinian land, built settlements on many parts of Palestine, disallowed the use of roads built on Palestinian land to the Palestinians, erected your own check points at the borders of Palestine with Jordan and built your version of the Berlin Wall through Palestinian villages on land that is not part of Israel.

11. Before the creation of Israel, the Jews and Arabs in Palestine lived in peace. Historically Jews had always sought refuge in Muslim countries when the Europeans conducted pogroms against them. This only stopped after the U.S. offered asylum.

12. All the terrorism that we see today, whether state initiated or by irregulars, started after the U.S. backed Israel against Arab attempts to regain their land through conventional wars. Because they were outclassed in terms of weapons by the U.S, / Israel, alliance, then only did the Arabs resort to what is called terrorism. The Israeli response have always been with greater terrorism as is seen in Gaza.

13. I have asked an American what he would do if Texas was given to the Jews to create the state of Israel. He did not answer. But I believe he would fight to get back Texas, employing all the weapons at its disposal.

14. Yet had the United States been willing to create the nation of Israel in the lands under U.S. control or in the U.S. itself, there would be no terrorism in Palestine or in the Middle East. There would be no terrorism in America either because Israel would be wiped out by the U.S. forces. The world would remain peaceful.

15. The brutality committed by your forces in Gaza is out of all proportion to the puny rocket attacks by Hamas. That attack was the result of Israel and the U.S. failing to accept the results of a properly conducted election.

16. Hamas could only establish their Government in Gaza. But you blockaded Gaza, denying them food, medicine, power, fuel etc. If you had not done that I doubt that Hamas would fire rockets at you.

17. Malaysia is well aware that total boycott of Israel is not possible. We are in fact boycotting American products which is an even more impossible task. We would not be able to bring America or Israel down.

18. But what we aim to do is to demonstrate the disgust and the anger that we feel over the inhumanity of the brainy but primitive peoples of Israel and America.

19. You can collect Nobel prizes and other prizes but the world will look down upon you as very primitive people who robbed land through terror against perfidious British and subsequently used your control over the world’s greatest military power to oppress the people whom you had robbed.

20. You have nothing to be proud of, unless of course you take pride in being heartless, in being primitive brutes.

21. The only mitigating factor is the presence among Israelis of a small number who are ashamed of what you have done to the people of Gaza.

GAZA AND THE BRITISH PAPERS

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
1. I have been in the United Kingdom for more than a week – a long time for me to stay in any place abroad.

2. When I left Malaysia the papers and television were full of reports on the Israeli brutalities in Gaza. There were heart-wrenching pictures of little children half-buried in the rubble of destroyed houses. I was very upset with Israeli brutalities and I thought the whole world would condemn Israel.

3. I was shocked that in the United Kingdom, the land of the free press and free speech there was hardly any report on Gaza and the Israeli invasion. Certainly there were no pictures of the brutal killing of children.

4. I understand that it is the same in America, another great advocate of the freedom of the Press.

5. Maybe by freedom of the Press they mean allowing the Press to pick and choose what they wish to publish. Yet they talk about self-censorship in Malaysia. What our papers fail to report is nothing compared to what the British and American media fail to report. Obviously they are protecting Israel’s interest.

6. All these give credence to the allegation that the Jews control the Western media. When in 2003 at the OIC conference I said that the Jews rule the world by proxy, I was condemned by the Western press and the US Government. It would seem that Jewish control over the ethnic European countries, in particular the United States of America is total.

SELAMAT MENYAMBUT TAHUN BARU CINA

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
Saya dan isteri mengucapkan Selamat Menyambut Tahun Baru Cina kepada semua rakyat Malaysia, khususnya kepada kaum Cina.

Bagi kita rakyat Malaysia yang berbilang kaum, ini merupakan perayaan tahun baru yang ketiga yang kita raikan dalam masa sebulan, bermula dengan Maal Hijrah dan Tahun Baru 2009.

Semoga kedatangan Tahun Lembu ini akan menguatkan lagi azam semua pihak untuk berusaha ke arah mengeratkan hubungan antara kaum di negara yang kita cintai ini.

GONG XI FA CAI!

PILIHANRAYA KECIL KUALA TERENGGANU

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
1. Rencana ini telah ditulis semasa pilihanraya sedang berjalan. Saya pilih untuk tidak menyiarkannya pada masa itu supaya tidak dituduh mencuba mempengaruhi keputusan. Saya telah dikritik oleh seorang ahli UMNO kerana rencana saya berkenaan dilema pengundi. Rencana ini adalah sebagai jawapan kepada pengkritik saya.

2. Saya telah nyatakan pendirian saya dalam pilihanraya kecil ini iaitu saya tidak memihak kepada sesiapa.

3. Bahawa bagi sesetengah ahli UMNO pilihanraya ini penting, itu adalah pendapat mereka. Bagi saya pilihanraya kecil ini penting kepada UMNO jika ahli-ahli dan pemimpinnya dapat faham dan mengambil iktibar dari keputusannya. Saya tidak yakin mereka akan faham. Mereka akan nafi segala kesalahan mereka seperti dengan prestasi buruk pilihanraya Mac 2008.

4. Saya adalah bekas ahli UMNO dan saya amat sayang kepada UMNO yang ditubuh oleh pejuang-pejuang kebangsaan dahulu. Tetapi parti yang ada sekarang bukan UMNO dari segi semangat dan perjuangannya. Yang ada ialah parti yang utamakan kepentingan diri, terutama pemimpin-pemimpinnya.

5. Kata pepatah Melayu, “Sayang isteri tinggal-tinggalkan, sayang anak tangan-tangankan.”

6. Sayang yang buta tuli bukan sahaja tidak baik bagi yang sayang tetapi juga yang disayangi.

7. UMNO dibawah pemimpin Dato Seri Abdullah sudah menyimpang jauh dari jalan yang lurus, dan perjuangan UMNO yang sebenar.

8. Dengan itu ahli-ahli UMNO pun tidak lagi pegang kepada matlamat perjuangan UMNO untuk bangsa, agama dan negara.

9. Majoriti ahli UMNO setia dan patuh kepada pemimpin tanpa mengambilkira apa yang dilakukan olehnya. Pepatah Melayu sekali lagi memberi pengajaran. “Raja adil Raja disembah, Raja zalim Raja disanggah”. Kesetiaan rakyat pada Raja ada batasannya. Demikian juga kesetiaan ahli pada pemimpin harus mempunyai batasan.

10. Sesungguhnya banyak kesalahan dan dosa yang telah dilakukan oleh pucuk pimpinan UMNO dan konco-konconya.

11. Saya boleh senaraikan semua kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Presiden UMNO dan Perdana Menteri. Tetapi ia terlalu panjang. Memadai jika saya sebut beberapa sahaja yang menyebabkan saya tolak UMNO sekarang:

a) Sanggup meletak wilayah negara sendiri dibawah kuasa Singapura apabila mendakwa pembangunan dalam wilayah Malaysia perlu dapat persetujuan Kerajaan Singapura.

b) Memberi kuasa kepada anak dan menantu dalam urusan parti dan Kerajaan sehingga calon-calon PRU 12 ditentukan oleh mereka. Hampir semua dari mereka ini kalah.

c) Penglibatan anak menantu dalam perniagaan yang dikuasai oleh Kerajaan. Bantuan Kerajaan kepada perniagaan mereka. Umpamanya pengambilalihan Avenue Asset oleh ECM Libra.

d) Kegiatan beberapa pembantu khas yang ditempatkan di tingkat 4. Mereka lebih berkuasa dari KabinEt.

e) Penjualan M.V. Agusta yang dibeli dengan harga RM300 juta, tetapi dijual dengan harga RM4.00. Pembeli M.V. Agusta ini kemudian menjualnya dengan harga RM500 juta – untung RM499,999,996 juta.

f) Mengguna wang secara terbuka untuk mendapat sokongan dari cawangan-cawangan UMNO. Apabila didakwa oleh ketua bahagian, ia digantung. Laporan polis dan BPR yang dibuat oleh veteran UMNO tidak dipedulikan.

12. Kesan dari kepimpinan yang rasuah dan tidak bermoral ialah perkembangan menyeluruh politik wang semasa pencalonan oleh bahagian-bahagian.

13. Orang yang diketahui umum terlibat dengan rasuah berjaya mendapat cukup bilangan undi untuk jadi calon dalam pemilihan yang akan diadakan pada Mac. Sekaligus ternampak jelas yang ahli-ahli UMNO utamakan duit dan bukan perjuangan untuk bangsa, agama dan Negara.

14. Besar kemungkinan orang yang guna wang ini yang akan dipilih dalam pemilihan bulan Mac oleh wakil-wakil yang telah disogok.

15. Sudah tentu mereka ini akan mengetuai Kerajaan kemudian.

16. Kita akan dapat Kerajaan UMNO yang tidak bermoral dan rasuah.

17. UMNO di bawah pimpinan Abdullah telah jadi begitu lemah sehingga dikecam sewenang-wenangnya oleh kaum-kaum lain dan parti mereka.

18. Apabila dikecam pemimpin UMNO pohon maaf dan tunduk kepada pengecam. Sebaliknya jika orang UMNO mengecam parti lain, mereka digantung.

19. Semua isyarat menunjuk bahawa UMNO akan ditewas dan hancur dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-13.

20. Saya akui saya yang pilih Dato Abdullah, Mr Clean. Saya akui juga saya tidak pandai pilih. Lihat sahaja Tun Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim dan ramai dari Menteri-Menteri yang mengutuk saya apabila sahaja saya tidak jadi PM lagi.

21. Memilih semasa saya tidak tahu perangai seseorang adalah tidak bijak. Tetapi meneruskan sokongan apabila saya sudah tahu keburukan yang dilakukan oleh orang pilihan saya adalah perbuatan yang tidak bertanggungjawab.

22. Saya tidak cari untuk saya disukai ramai. Saya bertindak atas pendirian yang pada hemat saya adalah baik walaupun saya akan jadi tidak popular.

23. Hanya kerana saya dahulu menjadi pemimpin UMNO tidak bermakna saya mesti terus menyokong UMNO setelah UMNO menyimpang dari perjuangan asalnya dan sudah jadi parti milik perasuah yang hanya utamakan kepentingan diri masing-masing, yang hanya menyertai UMNO untuk dapat duit sogokan, mendapat peluang perniagaan, menjadi Menteri dan Perdana Menteri.

24. Percayalah, apabila dalam Mesyuarat Agong Mac ini calon-calon yang diketahui menyogok wang kepada wakil ke mesyuarat agong menang, UMNO akan dipandang jijik oleh rakyat semua kaum dan UMNO akan kalah pada PRU 13. Selepas itu UMNO akan terkubur dan mereka yang membawa kehancuran pada UMNO kerana wang dan keuntungan bagi diri sendiri akan dikutuk oleh orang Melayu turun temurun.

25. Biarlah kekalahan UMNO di Kuala Terengganu menjadi pengajaran pada UMNO. Janji-janji memberi wang untuk pembangunan tidak lagi berkesan kepada pengundi umum. Sesungguhnya rakyat termasuk orang Melayu meluat melihat sikap ahli dan pemimpin UMNO.

THE UNITED NATIONS

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
1. Perhaps it would be worthwhile if we read again the Charter of the United Nations to see how we and other countries subscribe to and carry out the objectives of the Charter.

Below is the introduction to the Charter;

“We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generation from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standard of life in larger freedom, and for these ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organisation to be known as the United Nations.”

2. Clearly the United Nations is aimed at saving succeeding generations (we and our children, grand children….) from the scourge of war.

3. Who wars today? Is it us or is it the very country which initiated this Charter, on whose soil the countries of the world gathered to formulate and to sign.

4. Total disregard for the “sorrow to mankind” is shown repeatedly by the United States and Britain.

5. And has the United States shown any “faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small”.

6. Look at the millions killed, millions more injured, cities and towns devastated by wars of aggression by the United States, look at the detention without trial and the torture of suspected “terrorists”, the sanctions which killed hundreds of thousands of children and many other obvious disregard for fundamental human rights; look at them and ask yourselves what kind of people are the Americans who signed the UN Charter.

7. Then there is the obligation “to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law”.

8. Have the United States and Britain, the main signatories of the United Nations Charter “established conditions under which justice and respect for …. treaties and international laws”.

9. Both countries totally ignored the Charter of the United Nations the treaty that established it, when both warred against Iraq without the approval of the United Nations. Numerous international laws on rights of citizens and non-citizens, imprisonment and torture, international agreements on the environment have been flouted by the United States. Even the authority of the World Court has been rejected by the US.

10. Has the United States promoted social progress and better standards of life? Killing people in order to promote democracy is totally contrary to this undertaking.

11. Has the United States practiced tolerance and lived in peace as good neighbours? Has the United States obeyed the injunction not to use armed force and has it used international machinery for the promotion of economic and social advancement of all people? To all these questions, the answer is a resounding “No”!

12. Truly the United States and at times Britain together with Israel have never honored anything that they have undertaken to do in the Charter of the Untied Nations or at any other time.

13. And yet these two countries often take the high moral ground to preach to other people about human rights, about the rule of law, about respect for international law, about respecting treaties and agreements, about equality and freedoms etc.

14. Never has the world seen hypocrisy on this scale.

LABU AIRPORT

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
1. Air Asia has done well to explain the justification for the so-called KLIA-East in Labu.

2. Not having the facilities and personnel I can only give my very unprofessional view on the justification:

a) Passenger Capacity

I must congratulate Air Asia on its very remarkable success. By 2014 it will handle 26 million passengers. Present terminal at KLIA is handling about 25 million passengers.

KLIA is planned to handle 125 million passengers. It has 25,000 acres of land to build another terminal and four satellites. It can even duplicate these terminals and satellites.

But Air Asia wants low-cost terminals with no aero-bridge, no luxury interiors. This is not a problem for KLIA.

There is enough space in the 25,000 acres of reserved land to build the low-cost terminal to accommodate the 60 million Air Asia passengers in the distant future. MAHB (Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad) can do this. (Incidentally Putrajaya has only 10,000 acres of land). However, by 2014 the total number of Air Asia passengers would only be 27 million. Accommodating this number should be no big deal for MAHB.

b) Runway capacity

By 2014 Air Asia will have 77 aircrafts. LCCT capacity will still be for 33 aircrafts. Does Air Asia expect all its aircrafts to be on the ground in LCCT all the time?

Usually some would be in the air and many would be at other airports. Expanding the parking area would not be too difficult. There would still be enough land at KLIA.

As for the runways Times Online reports that Heathrow will now build its third runway to be completed in 2020. Presently Heathrow has only two runways and it still handles almost 70 million passengers.

As stated above, KLIA can build another three runways to handle 125 million passengers. If passengers and aircrafts increase to more than presently handled by Heathrow, a third runway can quickly be built.

If KLIA LCCT is not connected by rail and bus, the thing to do is to provide all these. Extension to the Express Rail Link line can be built. Terrain is no problem. We have sliced through higher hills to build roads.

If the waiting time for taxis has increased due to the huge airport layout (I don’t understand this), whatever solution for this problem is proposed for Labu, the same solution can also be applied to KLIA LCCT.

c) Number of Gates

Since Air Asia will not be using the main terminal why should the small number of gates there be of concern to Air Asia?

If Air Asia will be putting more than 55 Gates at Labu to cater for its large number of aircrafts and movements, why cannot LCCT at KLIA be expanded to have maybe 100 Gates to avoid any shortages? Will Labu be provided with 100 Gates? If so, when?

Again, why be bothered about KLIA Terminal being equipped with aero-bridges etc when Air Asia does not want to use it?

3. The comparison with Dubai and Jackson Atlanta International Airport is misleading.

4. The picture shows four runways (no indication which airport). Multiple runways is common but they are operated by one airport with one control tower. The picture and the layout does not suggest separate towers for different runways. You cannot have multiple runways close to each other but controlled by different towers.

5. Perhaps Air Asia can show documents that separations between different airport runways of 2km are permissible. Is there any example of two major airports operating separately but located 2km from each other? I don’t know. Please enlighten me.

6. The problem prompting the idea of a new airport is the allegedly high charges by MAHB for the use of LCCT by Air Asia. MAHB is owned by Khazanah and it is believed Khazanah has a stake in Air Asia. Both are therefore GLCs. The Government can tell them to negotiate fair charges. Or is it the Government that wants this airport at Labu for reasons other than need?

7. Or is it that Sime Darby now wants to go into airport business?

BOYCOTT

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
1. I would like to have the Malaysian Armed Forces attack the United States and Israel.

2. But I don’t think the Government and the MAF would agree with me.

3. So what do we do?

4. We could blockade the United States and deny it food and medicine.

5. The blockade would have to go on for a hundred years. A lot of innocent people would die. But as Madeleine Albright said when asked whether killing 500,000 Iraqi babies was worth it, she said it was difficult but it was worth it. So Malaysians should not mind killing a few million Americans including babies because although it will be difficult it would be worth it.

6. But I suspect we cannot blockade either.

7. So what do we do? Let the bully do what it likes? But the bully is killing lots of innocent people together with small children and babies.

8. But on the other hand we need to drink Coca-Cola, use the Internet, fly Boeing jets, see Rambo movies etc etc. Can we sacrifice all these simply because babies are being decapitated by Israeli soldiers using highly sophisticated and costly weapons donated by the kind Americans? Of course we cannot.

9. What we can do is totally worthless. We can boycott US products.

10. But can we? Well not completely. Maybe partially. Like not drinking Coca-Cola, or not seeing the latest blockbuster.

11. It is not going to stop the United States from remaining the most powerful nation and continuing to kill people directly or indirectly.

12. But if 10 per cent of the people in the world who drink Coca-Cola stop drinking it there would be some impact. If Malaysians drink, say 50 per cent less Coca-Cola (because their lives depend on it) there would be some impact also. If nothing else it will demonstrate our displeasure with the Americans.

13. But what about the Malaysians working in factories producing coke? I don’t believe they produce only Coca-Cola. They produce other drinks as well. If people switch from Coca-Cola to another drink produced by the same company, then the company will have to produce more of this alternative drink and there would be no need to close down and sack the workers.

14. The idea is to do what we can to show displeasure at what the US is doing. We will not bring the US economy crashing down. It will continue to prosper. But the US and Americans must know how much the world dislike or even hate them.

15. Presently the President of the United States claims “the world respects America for its compassion”.

16. I am appending below an article by Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration.

17. Please read it carefully since you may think as a Muslim I am biased against the United States and Israel.

18. I will be putting on my blog other articles by other people and you can judge for yourselves.

The White House Moron Stumbles to the Finish

The Humiliation of America

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

“Early Friday morning the secretary of state was considering bringing the cease-fire resolution to a UNSC vote and we didn’t want her to vote for it,” Olmert said. “I said ‘get President Bush on the phone.’ They tried and told me he was in the middle of a lecture in Philadelphia. I said ‘I’m not interested, I need to speak to him now.’ He got down from the podium, went out and took the phone call.”

“Let me see if I understand this,” wrote a friend in response to news reports that Israeli Prime Minister Olmert ordered President Bush from the podium where he was giving a speech to receive Israel’s instructions about how the United States had to vote on the UN resolution. “On September 11th, President Bush is interrupted while reading a story to school children and told the World Trade Center had been hit–and he went on reading. Now, Olmert calls about a UN resolution when Bush is giving a speech and Bush leaves the stage to take the call. There exists no greater example of a master-servant relationship.”

Olmert gloated as he told Israelis how he had shamed US Secretary of State Condi Rice by preventing the American Secretary of State from supporting a resolution that she had helped to craft. Olmert proudly related how he had interrupted President Bush’s speech in order to give Bush his marching orders on the UN vote.

Israeli politicians have been bragging for decades about the control they exercise over the US government. In his final press conference, President Bush, deluded to the very end, said that the whole world respects America. In fact, when the world looks at America, what it sees is an Israeli colony.

Responding to mounting reports from the Red Cross and human rights organizations of Israel’s massive war crimes in Gaza, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted 33-1 on January 12 to condemn Israel for grave offenses against human rights.

On January 13, the London Times reported that Israelis have gathered on a hillside overlooking Gaza to enjoy the slaughter of Palestinians in what the Times calls “the ultimate spectator sport.”

It is American supplied F-16 fighter jets, helicopter gunships, missiles, and bombs that are destroying the civilian infrastructure of Gaza and murdering the Palestinians who have been packed into the tiny strip of land. What is happening to the Palestinians herded into the Gaza Ghetto is happening because of American money and weapons. It is just as much an attack by the United States as an attack by Israel. The US government is complicit in the war crimes.

Yet in his farewell press conference on January 12, Bush said that the world respects America for its compassion.

The compassion of bombing a UN school for girls?

The compassion of herding 100 Palestinians into one house and then shelling it?

The compassion of bombing hospitals and mosques?

The compassion of depriving 1.5 million Palestinians of food, medicine, and energy?

The compassion of violently overthrowing the democratically elected Hamas government?

The compassion of blowing up the infrastructure of one of the poorest and most deprived people on earth?

The compassion of abstaining from a Security Council vote condemning these actions?

And this is a repeat of what the Israelis and Americans did to Lebanon in 2006, what the Americans did to Iraqis for six years and are continuing to do to Afghans after seven years. And still hope to do to the Iranians and Syrians.

In 2002 I designated George W. Bush “the White House Moron.” If there ever was any doubt about this designation, Bush’s final press conference dispelled it.

Bush talked about connecting the dots, but Bush has failed to connect any dots for eight solid years. “Our” president was a puppet for a cabal led by Dick Cheney and a handful of Jewish neoconservatives, who took control of the Pentagon, the State Department, the National Security Council, the CIA, and “Homeland Security.” From these power positions, the neocon cabal used lies and deception to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, pointless wars that have cost Americans $3 trillion, while millions of Americans lose their jobs, their pensions, and their access to health care.

“These obviously very difficult economic times,” Bush said in his press conference, “started before my presidency.”

Bush has plenty of liberal company in failing to connect a $3 trillion dollar war with hard times. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities blames Bush’s tax cut, not the wars, for “the fiscal deterioration.”

Bush told the White House Press Corps, a useless collection of non-journalists, that the two mistakes of his invasion of Iraq were: (1) Putting up the “mission accomplished” banner on the aircraft carrier, which, he said, “sent the wrong message,” and (2) the absence of the alleged weapons of mass destruction that he used to justify the invasion.

Although Bush now admits that there were not any such weapons in Iraq, Bush said that the invasion was still the right thing to do.

The deaths of 1.25 million Iraqis, the displacement of 4 million Iraqis, and the destruction of a country’s infrastructure and economy are merely the collateral damage associated with “bringing freedom and democracy” to the Middle East.

Unless George W. Bush is the best actor in human history, he truly believes what he told the White House Press Corps.

What Bush did not explain is how America is respected when its people put a moron in charge for eight years.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration.

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01142009.html

TERRORISTS

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
1. I was shocked when a reporter asked me why I regard the Israelis as terrorists when it is the Muslims who blow themselves up so as to kill children. The Israelis are apparently not considered to be terrorists despite daily reports with pictures of the women, children and babies who have been killed and wounded.

2. Do the suicide bombers deliberately target children? Would they kill children if they could kill Israeli soldiers? What is their objective in killing children? Is it because they know it would win them the war?

3. I have no liking for people who resort to killing by blowing themselves up. But they are not regular soldiers who can be protected by tanks and powerful bombardment before they shoot and kill their victims. In fact the regular soldiers of the Israeli forces need not expose themselves to any danger as they choose their targets. They can shoot missiles from far off. Yet there can be no doubt that civilians including children have been deliberately killed by them in much greater numbers than the suicide bombers have ever done.

4. For the suicide bombers, fear of being discovered before they could blow themselves up must be very real. They have to control themselves and appear calm and innocent as they seek the most effective time and place to blow themselves up. The tension must be great for they know soon they would be dead, killed by the explosives they were carrying.

5. To get close to Israeli soldiers would be a great feat. The soldiers would not allow Arabs to get near them knowing that they might be suicide bombers. Not being able to go back with the bomb unexploded the bombers must blow themselves up somewhere.

6. Have they all targeted children? I don’t think so. The Western media is biased and are controlled by Jews. The Israelis do not allow foreign Press reporters to see them killing the people of Gaza and elsewhere. The reports of the suicide bombers targeting children came from the Israelis. Can we believe them? Do we get any pictures of children being killed like the pictures we see of children in Gaza being killed?

7. In any case we know that the number of Israelis killed by suicide bombers or Hamas rockets are nothing compared to the nearly 1,000 Gazans confirmed killed so far. Even the Red Cross and other international agencies have condemned Israeli atrocities.

8. Yes the suicide bombers are terrorists. But they have no other choice. They don’t have bomber and fighter planes, tanks, guns, rockets and chemical weapons to fight their enemies.

9. The Israelis are terrorists by choice. They have been trained to kill using powerful weapons. We see them killing on television and in pictures in newspapers.

10. The whole world condemns Israeli attacks. It is strange that a Malaysian reporter should think it is all the fault of the people of Gaza and Hamas.

ROB

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
(On Jan 9, 2009, Rob commented on Open Letter to Barack Hussein Obama President-elect of the United States of America – this is my reply)

Dear Rob,

1. I hope this is your name. I am always saddened by the ignorance of the average American. Yet America is so powerful that directly or indirectly it rules the world. For a country with ignorant people to rule the world it is an unmitigated disaster.

2. Clearly you have never been to Malaysia. But if I may say so we are not obsolete. But I admit we have only primitive weapons for our defence. You can, with a few nuclear bombs wipe our country from the surface of this earth.

3. Sorry for the 3,000 of your innocent citizens incinerated in their place of employment. At least three of those incinerated were actually Malaysians. I understand hardly any Jews were in the building. They were not incinerated.

4. But consider the 300,000 Vietnamese, 50,000 Afghans, 100,000 Iraqis whom you have killed. Mostly they were not soldiers. They were not working in the offices either. They were babies, schoolchildren, sick men and women in hospitals. Of course they could all be terrorists, including the babies and the schoolchildren.

5. Who are terrorists? Are they only the suicide bombers? What about the countries, which sent their soldiers, air force, navy with tanks and guns and rocket launchers, and bomber and fighter planes to shock and awe and to kill people by the thousands. Aren’t their victims (the children, old men and women, the sick in the hospitals) terrified when they hear bombers flying above, when bombs and shells burst around them, killing their fathers and mothers, their brothers and sisters; when any time they themselves would be blown to pieces. Aren’t they terrified?

6. If they are terrified aren’t the people who terrify them also terrorists? If you have a right to kill “terrorists” (also to detain and torture them), then they have a right to kill the terrorists who attacked and kill them and their people. I don’t like terrorism but I also don’t like terrorism by Governments. Both terrify.

7. We are primitive of course because we defend ourselves with primitive weapons. You train your children to kill by launching rockets from a thousand miles away, bombing with planes beyond the range of the primitive guns of your victims. You don’t have to be frightened of us. But we must be frightened of the murdering bullies whom you think so highly of.

8. Saddam had killed people and buried them in mass graves. You kill many times more Iraqis, Afghans and Vietnamese and left them unburied, to rot and to be eaten by dogs. Remember My Lai?

9. May I know who were fed to the lions by Saddam. You must be absolutely ignorant if you are not aware how unfettered capitalism has actually destroyed your own country.

10. Yes the United Nations is a waste of money. That is because the US prevents it from carrying out its work to restore peace and justice in this world.

11. I think you need to go to school to improve your knowledge and understanding of what is happening around you, not American school of course because obviously they don’t teach anything beyond glorifying the genocides perpetrated by you throughout history.

THE FOURTH AIRPORT

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
1. Now we know that the proposal to build a new airport at Labu is not a rumour. It is for real. Seems it is going to be a Private Financial Initiative – i.e. Government is not going to put up the money.

2. The site is 10 kilometers from KLIA. I had some experience of landing a small jet plane, so I can speak with a little knowledge. The approach speed of a big jet is between 300 to 400 kph. or it would cover the 10km in slightly less than 2 minutes.

3. The statement says that initially there would be no runway. That means the aircraft would land at KLIA.

4. Will the plane taxi 10km to Labu to disembark the passengers, pick up new passenger and then taxi 10km to the runway in KLIA to take off?

5. To do this it would need a special highway separated from other roads and highway. It would be interesting for the locals and tourists to see the huge planes taxiing 10km across the countryside.

6. Later a new runway would be built at Labu – must be at least 2km long – bringing it even nearer to KLIA. Wonder in which direction the plane will take off. What if a plane is landing or taking off from Sepang KLIA at the same time as as Labu. Only two minutes would separate the planes–not much time to take evasive action. I suppose planes taking off or landing simultaneously at KLIA and Labu must have great pilots and powerful engines to avoid accidents.

7. Remember that each airport would have its own control tower. Do they coordinate? I wonder.

8. May be it would be possible to bus the passengers from KLIA to Labu vis a vis if no runway is to be built in Labu. The Labu terminal would have to clear the incoming and outgoing passengers. So the KL passengers would to able to sightsee as the buses take them to Labu and then to KLIA. Coming back they would take the bus to Labu from KLIA and then to KL.

9. Since this is going to be a private financing initiative, the custom, immigration and other officers will all be paid by the operator of the new airport. No Government money involved. This would be the epitome of privatisation.

10. The land for the airport belongs to Sime Darby. So airport development and operation will be included in its portfolio.

11. Incidentally Sime Darby has also taken over the land at Telaga Harbour in Langkawi. LADA had to tell several potential developers to forget it. You do not mess around with Sime Darby. It is as good as Government.

12. Since I am the adviser to the Langkawi Development naturally my advice was not required.

13. Till today nothing has been done by Sime Darby to develop Telaga Harbour. There is a proposal to construct a floating platform for a museum in the harbor.

14. The turning basin for the mega yacht is already small. The floating platform would reduce the size of the harbor with the consequences that I need not mention.

15. I felt like shouting “Long Live Sime Darby!”. It will become the biggest and most diversified of Malaysian corporations. We can all be very proud of it.

MOZZARELLA CHEESE II

blogtunm.blogspot.com Tun M 
1. I don’t know whether my piece about Langkawi mozzarella was read by the Star or not but I am glad the paper carried reports on the production of the unique Italian cheese in Langkawi.

2. There is no doubt the recipe was brought by Mr Muhammad Michael Bruschi, an Italian who married a Malaysian.

3. His cheese making facility is located near a Government buffalo breeding farm. Talking to Mr Bruschi I realise that there is not enough buffalo milk for him to grow his business.

4. He is very knowledgeable about cattle breeding and he has a number of French limousine cows in his farm

5. I am informed that the buffalo breeding station is to be handed to a cooperative. Although the Government veterinary staff know about breeding buffaloes and can train the co-operative to carry on, perhaps they can make use of Mr Bruschi to bring in Italian practices into buffalo breeding, especially for maximising the production of milk. I am sure it will benefit everyone.

6. I hope no one will be offended by my unsolicited suggestion. I am still nominally the adviser to LADA or Langkawi Island Development Authority.

7. Mr Bruschi also has a Malay boy who he had sent for training in butchery in San Marino, an independent country inside Italy. Carving up the carcass of a slaughtered animal requires special skills. The different parts of the animal sell at different prices in the market. A trained butcher would carefully carve the carcass so as to maximise the returns from selling at different prices the best parts and the less tasty parts.